For example, trading standards officers have been working with fish and chip shops in north-east England to get them to use salt shakers with fewer holes.

BBC: Healthy lifestyles: Is a hug, shove, nudge or smack best?

For those who still have a pair of silver salt and pepper shakers or any other innocently pilfered items at home, there's still time to return them - no questions asked.

BBC: The return of ��missing�� hotel goods

Like all committed collectors, whether of van Goghs or novelty salt and pepper shakers, I prefer to look back on my urge to accumulate as passionate, as opposed to pathological.

FORBES: Editor's Note